Test Drive Gutenbergs Latest Pre-Releases with Gutenberg Prototype

However, Gutenberg will still be developed as a plugin for testing purposes so Gutenberg Prototype is still the best way for developers to stay ahead with progress.

Viewing the plugin information of Gutenberg when a pre-release is available.

Over the past couple of months I have been getting to know Gutenberg more and I have found it to be far better than when I first tested it when the first public beta was released and I now enjoy using it more than I did originally.

Recently I built my first block for Gutenberg which I had to learn a new language called React but was surprisingly easy to understand as I have experience doing most of my JavaScript coding with jQuery.

Although Gutenberg is more solid, maintaining and updating blocks is currently an on-going process. I will be building more with Gutenberg and as a developer, I need to keep up to date with all the changes being applied to Gutenberg.

Solving the problem

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to update Gutenberg automatically to the latest pre-releases to test the blocks that I build and check if they are compatible or if certain components need to be updated until WordPress finally release an update for Gutenberg to the public on the WordPress plugin directory.

So I decided to build another plugin updater just as I did for the WordPress theme Storefront. In this updater, I also added the ability to pull the changelog from the latest release tag on the Gutenberg GitHub repository so that I am able to view the changes that release has made.

This saves time going to the GitHub repository to check out the changelog as I am able to read them directly from my WordPress dashboard when viewing the plugin information.

I also added a little warning notice at the top of each section when viewing the plugin information so users know if the version they would be installing is stable, a beta or a pre-release. The updater also uses a filter to enable auto updates.

Hope you find it useful.

Enjoy!

I can maintain and update my blocks before #Gutenberg release a new update publicly with Gutenberg Prototype. Its a must-have tool for #WordPress developers or for those who are testing the Gutenberg editor its self.